The present invention relates to the field of cabled systems and related computer peripheral devices, and more particularly to a system and method for determining interconnection pattern of data ports without requiring special patching cables or patching panels.
The problems of tracking the interconnection pattern among the various ports in a local area network are well known to those skilled in the art. At least one system which deals with this problem is described in the U.S. Pat. No. 5,483,467 entitled xe2x80x9cPatching Panel Scannerxe2x80x9d. The patent describes a patching panel scanner which automatically and continuously senses the interconnection arrangement of various ports such as computer ports and user ports. In this type of system, the interconnection between the ports are provided~by patching cables or alternatively by apparatus of internal connection in patching panels such as the CLPP cordless patching panel available from RIT Technologies Ltd. of Tel Aviv, Israel.
In this type of system, in order to determine the interconnectivity pattern of the various ports, a conductor needs to interconnect the ports and deliver a signal to the scanner indicating the connection status of a particular port. In the modem computer era, it is actually difficult to provide a conductor for this purpose because most modem data cables being used to interconnect various devices have to meet a particular pre-determined standard in the industry. So for instance, a standard cable such as RJ45 eight wires per cable, each having an end which is adapted to mate with an RJ45 port. No free wire allows for scanning for interconnectivity.
Therefore, in the prior art scanner systems, the ports needed to be interconnected via a patch panel which required a special patch cable or an apparatus of internal connections in the patch panels. In any case, the ports could not be connected directly using standard cables. Although the need for and desirability of having a scanner system which can utilize standard cables clearly exist, so far, the industry has been unable to come up with such a system.
It is therefore an objective of the present invention to provide a system for monitoring and determining the interconnectivity of ports which overcomes the shortcomings of the prior art system described above.
More particularly, it is an object of present invention to provide a system for monitoring and determining the interconnectivity of ports which does not require special patch panels or patch cables.
More particularly, it is an object of present invention to provide a system for monitoring and determining the interconnectivity of ports which utilizes standard connection cables.
The present invention determines and monitors the connection pattern of data ports which are connected by multiconductor cables without requiring special patch cables or patch panels. In order to electronically determine the connectivity between one port to another, it is generally well understood that an electrical conductor needs to connect one port to the other. Although this principle is well known, in the modem era where many of the standardized cables such as RJ11 and RJ45 are used, it is difficult to provide this dedicated conductor for connectivity-scanning purposes because each of the wires within the cable is used for a standardized purpose which may interfere with the connectivity-scanning operation.
In the present connectivity monitoring system, a dedicated conductor which may be attached to an existing cable is provided. The conductor interacts with an adapter board which is attached to a port where the cable is to be connected. To provide an additional contact point for the scanning operation, an adapter jacket is provided which attaches to an RJ45 jack. The adapter jacket is attached to the jack at both ends of the cable. The additional contact point for the scanning operation is provided via an external contact located on the outside of the adapter jacket. An external conductor wire connects the external contact of the jack at each end of the cable such that the contact at each respective end will be electrically coupled to each other.
To provide a contact point for the external contact of the adaptor jacket at the port site, an adapter board is provided above the port sockets with each of the sockets having a socket contact. The socket contact is positioned such that when the RJ45 jack having the adapter jacket is inserted into a socket, the contact of the adapter jacket electrically mates with the socket contact of the adapter board.
In the overall system, the adapter board is coupled to an output module and an input module. The output driver module has a plurality of output drivers, and the receiver module has a plurality of latches (other similar electronic devices can be used instead of latches). Each of the socket contacts is uniquely connected to one output driver and one latch. The output module and the input module are both coupled to a micro-processor which is in turn coupled to a communication interface. The system may be coupled to a local area network or to a computer to report the information regarding the connection pattern.
Both the output module and the input module can be implemented using standard IC devices. The main function of the output module is to provide a plurality of output drivers which address the adaptor contacts and to send a signal to the contacts when instructed to do so by the micro-processor. The main function of the input module is to provide a plurality of latches (or other similar devices) which also address the contacts and to receive the signal sent by the output drivers. The communication interface can also be implemented using standard devices currently available to interface between the micro-processor and local area network and electronic devices.
Now to describe the operation of the present system, the micro-processor has pre-designated one output driver as a first driver and the socket contact which it is connected to as the first contact. The latch in the input module which is connected to the designated first contact is designated as the first latch, The port corresponding to the first socket contact is considered to be the first port. Another driver is pre-designated as a second driver, and its corresponding socket contact is designated as a second contact and its corresponding latch is designated as a second latch. The same designation scheme is applied to third, fourth, fifth, and so on, driver/contact/latch groupings such that all groups are uniquely designated.
Initially, all of the socket contacts are at low state with no signal being sent to them by the output module. To monitor the connectivity of the various ports, the micro-controller causes the designated first output driver to send out a pulse signal to the socket contact which the micro-controller has designated as the first contact. This places the first socket contact at a high state, and consequently, also places the first latch in the input module at the high state. After sending out the signal, the micro-controller scans the input module for a latch having a high state. If only the first latch indicates a high, then the micro-controller concludes that no valid connection has been made between the first port and another port. If, however, a port other than the first port, port one, indicates a high state, for instance port seven, then the micro-controller concludes that the port is validly connected to port seven. Once the connectivity state of port one is determined, the result is stored in memory and the same process is repeated for port two and so on until all of the ports"" connection status has been determined.